There is one choice, 2 votes for Bpathos' debate

Is our evolution going to be understood by us?

It seems that our facination with storing information and distributing it is more than a minor trait. What if it is taking on a life form of it's own. Ideas or cognitive potentials may be being formed outside the human form. Our speices "Group" mind may have evolved to include "Outside" of the flesh.
  • Evolution and Social Consciousnes

    Question: Does the mind shape ideas or ideas shape us?

    I've had times when I've come across ideas that where seemingly "too big" to comprehend. I would break them down into smaller parts and examine them then look at the whole picture as a sum of the parts. yet it didn't seem as though it was "all" there... Now some folks have an easier time than others understanding one thing or another. Some have a natural affinity toward math and some don't. This is purported to be due to the cognitive connections in the brain. Is it genetics or experience or...? It's easier for some. Reality is a modeling of our library of these connections. What we suspect to be reality is the mixed bag of these perceptions. The brain is like the "Glass" and the input is like the "Water". The shape of the glass dictates the shape of the water.... thus each person is holding a slightly different shaped "Glass" or view of the world. Given that there are just short of infinite possible cognitive combinations and that if one can't "connect the dots" or neurons then the idea won't shape up.

    Ok, now here's the leap... say there is an idea that is too big for a single person to comprehend... could it be comprehended in a grouping of people? Each person would not understand it as an individual, but the group would understand it? Each neuron knows what of an idea? Yet the whole is conscious. If our technology is the extension of our bodies then the computer and Web is an extension of our nervous system. The extension of consciousness may come from a “group consciousness” and exist just beyond our understanding. Sort of an extroverted "Jung" race memory. The web connecting the world may be part of the largest steps in evolution. There must surely be ideas that are just too big for us to see... today, and the world looks like it does because it's shaped by our biological capacity to model it. The consciousness itself evolved.

    As we strive to put "Bigger" ideas in the container it could be causing the container to change, or link up. Where the rest of the food chain keeps information is in it's genetics we permanently store it and distribute to the entire group, building up huge storages of information. We store it outside our body so it might be the reason we didn’t notice the evolution because it wasn't in us. We've become the "Borg" (from Star Trek). While we have been working on A.I. and supposing that our creation would be like us this massive “internet” nervous system has become something new. More than slime mold with cell phones, this Ektopsyche Sociaplex is a new member of the food chain. It requires “us” as we require cells and it requires the non organic wire and computers as we do minerals. Its purposes are not ours. We are like the fish in the water… never discovering water.
    100%  Voted for by Bpathos, Molzahn.
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